CROATIA'S FIRST INT. CONFERENCE ON ECO-TOURISM ENDS

PLITVICE LAKES, Dec 15 (Hina) - Croatia should be recognised as a country of protected regions and national parks and this, besides the sea and hotels, should become part of its tourist offer, domestic and foreign experts concluded on Friday. Ninety-five percent of today's tourist offer consists of mass tourism and this should be changed, participants in an international conference on eco-tourism and sustainable development of tourism in ecologically sensitive regions said. Held at the Plitvice Lakes National Park in central Croatia for the first time, the conference was organsied by the ministries for environmental protection and zoning and tourism. The experts said eco-tourism would improve Croatia's reputation, while its effects on the economy would be visible only later. They concluded Croatia had no development strategy for rural regions, that it was imperative to adopt general global criteria in protecting the environment, and incorporate Croatian into European Union legislation. Eco-tourism is expected to incite the development of the local community and economy, which the government should encourage, the experts said. Undeveloped regions should be connected and rural tourism also developed in formerly war-affected areas, they added. Participating in the conference were about 100 experts from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Great Britain, and Slovenia. (hina) ha